Royal Oak anti-discrimination law appears headed for election fight

Apr. 2, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

With the arrival of piles of petition signatures today at Royal Oak City Hall, a human-rights ordinance set to go quietly into effect last month seems headed for a contentious citywide vote in November.

Royal Oak resident Fred Birchard, who campaigned to block a similar ordinance in 2001, said he gathered nearly twice the minimum 746 signatures needed to block enactment of the new ordinance, which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV and other characteristics.

“The city just shouldn’t legislate morality,” Birchard said. The 75-year-old grandfather of 13 said he turned in 1,226 signatures to City Clerk Melanie Helas, and said his doorbell kept ringing this afternoon as more petitions were delivered to his home.

“The community is furious about this whole business, particularly because they weren’t allowed to vote, but then you have the issue on top of that. Most of us don’t agree with what the city commission did,” Birchard said.

On March 4, Royal Oak’s elected commissioners voted 6-1 to approve the ordinance. One day before it was to go into effect last month, Birchard blocked it temporarily by turning in 100 signatures. Now, if Halas finds 746 valid signatures in Birchard’s fresh pile of paperwork, she has said she will instruct the city commissioners to take up the ordinance at their April 15 meeting. They can either drop the ordinance or vote to place it on fall ballots, Helas said last week.

Mayor Jim Ellison has championed the ordinance, saying it would broadcast the city’s image as being a place of diversity that protects minorities. City Attorney Dave Gillam said the seven-page ordinance — modeled after an ordinance in Ann Arbor, and broader than human rights ordinances in Huntington Woods and Ferndale — is aimed at guaranteeing equal rights in job applications, working conditions and housing to gays and lesbians. It also bans discrimination on the basis of height, weight, pregnancy status, marital status and other characteristics.

Birchard contends that the ordinance provides special rights to homosexuals. When asked to summarize why he opposed it, Birchard points to bumper stickers on his fleet of six Ford collector cars. The stickers say, “Marriage, YES! 1 man + 1 woman.”